Name: RootMusic

Quick Pitch: RootMusic is all about making musicians’ professional lives better, be it through building software or building community.

Genius Idea: RootMusic’s debut product is called BandPage, and it makes MySpace-like band page features possible inside a Facebook fan page.

At present, Facebook fan pages are laid out in such a way that you can’t share your music with your fans while letting them continue to browse for information. You can deploy a music player tab, but as soon as your fans click on the Photos tab to see pictures of your band, the music stops.

Indie music can now be submitted to the Rock Band Network store.

Rock Band Network will now permit independent and unsigned bands to submit their own songs for users to download. This offer is  for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions of the game with the intention of providing the most downloadable tracks to Nintendo’s Wii moving forward.

Indie bands can price their songs between 50 cents and $3, netting 30% of track sales. Users of the game will be able to preview songs before they purchase on the Rock Band Network store.

A set of professional tools, which will allow musicians on the front line of writing and recording songs to completely control their destiny. It will take 20-40 hours for first-time users to apply their music on the full-featured editing suite. Bands will also have admission to interactive products and then giving them direct access to the download store.

Sign up and be a part of the first social network – music directory!

Categories include: Musicians, Artists, Labels, Bands, Venues, Stores, Producers, and the list goes on!!

Enjoy the features and online exposure that Gighive will offer its member from: news features on TheBuzz, advertising space, and the key features that strengthen your online presence.

The current directory is only the beginning of what the vision for the movement will become…

I have met a lot of musicians along my journey and some of those I have gotten to know pretty well. All of them have a similar story as to how they started in the music industry and it goes a bit like this.

“I don’t know how I started really, I just sort of fell into it and before I knew it I was in a band.”

Sound familiar? It does to me. That’s how I got started.

I didn’t have a plan, didn’t have a clue and didn’t have any idea of what I was getting myself in for let alone what I wanted to get out of it.

I wanted to be a “rock star” so I could “meet girls”.

Q) Tell us a little bit about your Friggin Fabulous Radio. What initially inspired you to start it?

A) I started Friggin Fabulous Radio in 2002 when I was working at an NYC news radio station. I used to be a Rock DJ at WHTG, FM106.3 in Asbury Park, NJ and I really missed it! Through Friggin Fabulous Radio I get to interview really talented artists and bands and play some of their music. Several of the bands I’ve interviewed are clients of Cyber PR/Ariel Publicity.

Q) What characteristics make a great holiday song?

A key feature that caught me by surprise is the ability for bands to easily share  their music all over the world. Swift.fm allows bands to upload their own tracks, demos, mixes and mashups. “Swift.fm is your portal to worldwide exposure on Twitter.”

You do not need to find new ways to send new big .Zip files, or trying to cram those files in an email anymore.

The service is layered on top of Twitter, so if your signed up on Twitter then your network is on Swift.fm.

YouMicro.com has been created by a group of people who want to give independent artists the opportunity to expose their art. The Web site is interested in attracting musicians who are looking to put together a group, or already have an established band.

Once you sign up, the Web site provides you the features to upload your songs!

Well there are tons of sites who let my band do this you say? Well there is more…

Amsterdam Mash-up Rockers Crush Cover Band Stereotypes

I first saw The Memphis Maniacs at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. It was a high-energy stage performance from five guys in stylized costumes putting on the kind of show you would normally expect from a DJ. The next time I saw them was at a beach party during a raging sandstorm. “This is like the Hamptons!” a friend shouted in my ear, “only crazier!”

The Memphis Maniacs are an indie band with a unique concept – mash-ups performed by live musicians. And the crowds love them. Their unique stage presence, intense light show, and fresh take on well-chosen hits guarantees the kind of slam-packed dance floor from which you’ll need to come up for air. The Maniacs may be one of the best live bands in the Netherlands today, but their style almost guarantees that the project will remain independent.

Many musicians feel like the band they are in is destined for success and that the group will never break up. Even after being a part of a number of bands, there is still that glimmer of hope—which is not a bad thing, but often times it can set you up for problems further down the road. Imagine that things are really starting to take off, money is coming in, you have forward motion and momentum. At this point, things feel good, everyone is happy, decisions are made fast, and quite possibly, never formalized in writing.

Now fast forward two years. For some reason, whatever reason, someone is leaving. The band is breaking up. If there was already fighting going on, it escalates: arguments over who gets what, who is owed what, and who has rights to what. Everything is twice as challenging and twice as hard. In a lot of cases, people hate each other, the fights get louder and harsher. This is not an atmosphere in which any equitable decisions can made.

Simple Solution

It really comes down to a very simple solution: In the early stages, while the band is new, while things are getting ready to happen, and most of all while everyone is happy and friendly, work to set up your end agreements then.

The best music you’re not listening to.^TM Reviews of lost classics and obscure titles. Unheralded bands and songwriters. New bands deserving of greater attention. It’s all here, on The Ripple Effect. The Ripple Effect is a top 100 music site, dedicated to spreading the word on new, unheralded and lost classic artists.   The Ripple Radio show puts our money where our mouth is, playing all the great music that’s going unheard.

Q: What has to be done in the technological sense to monetize music to a greater degree on the internet?

A: A great question and one that far greater minds than ours are trying to figure out.  The answer of course is as multi-faceted as the problem.  First and foremost, bands have to put out quality material.  The days of filler songs stuffed in between two killer cuts on an album are long gone.  With each song now having a downloadable monetary value, those filler songs are a waste of everyone’s time and energy.  If the product is good, it still sells.  iTunes numbers for top singles shows that people are willing to pay for music they feel to be of good value.   So the problem to us isn’t how to get people to buy music on the internet, they already are, the problem is how to get them to buy more.